American Legion Post 196, located at 1600 Burnett Drive, as of Dec. 18 will house a patient advocacy program and a rehabilitation and training program, according to Commander Paul Wade

“The state of Texas is the only state in the nation that has a patient advocacy program and a rehabilitation and training program at the state level for veterans, and they’re moving their office for this five-county area to our building,” Wade said Tuesday. “With that being in there, I’m now going to have the county-supported Texas Veterans Commission for all disability claims and support, the state-supported Texas Veterans Commission for all patient advocacy, long-term health and all of the different issues that go there to include now showing them how to register for medical help and work with the VA, and a social worker program sponsored by Howard Payne.”

Meals will also be provided by Clear Path going forward as well, starting with the Dec. 12 meeting.

“A company called Clear Path is going to start funding and catering our dinners for us at the meetings every month, plus providing box lunches and food to all the veterans to come to any of the other agencies to our facility,” Wade said. “It’s going to be a one-stop shop and that has not really existed before.”

With the new programs going into effect, the computer labs on site will be used to train veterans how to apply for services online.

“Under the new guidelines you can’t just go to the VA Clinic and get help, you must go online, register for assistance, get registered online before you can even get help,” Wade said. “The state is going to use the computer labs and system we have hooked up to literally fund and teach them how to use the computers to go online and register for assistance and the computer lab is going to be able to do that. They will be taught how to go online and to do that, from e-help, e-benefits program, register for medical support, all will be instructed and taught in the computer lab where they can literally start the program.”

Wade stated the computer will initially be open four days a week from 8 a.m. to noon.

“ As need the increases, we’ll expand the manning,” Wade said. “ We want to get it started before we move to increase this.”

Another change coming is the start of a visitation program with some of the care facilities in town.

“We working to put together a program in the next couple of months where we can open satellite programs at one of the facilities and work to do that at others,” Wade said. “Some of the veterans at the facility will be able to attend meetings via internet to have a discussion and be involved. We’ll also use it to have game nights and additional support at each facility eventually, and there are 11 of those in this areas.”

If interested in joining the American Legion, call Wade at 512-560-0194 or stop by the American Legion Hall. They meet the second Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. More information is available online at www.americanlegion.org.